TOD

Abstract

Dynamo action is the process by which magnetic fields in astrophysical bodies (and recently, laboratory fluids) are maintained against resistive losses by Faraday induction. For many years a favoured model of this process, known as mean-field electrodynamics, has been widely used to produce tractable models. I shall present a critique of this theory and contrast it it with another dynamo process (small scale dynamo action) that does not, unlike mean-field electrodynamics, rely on broken reflection symmetry or scale separation. Finally, I shall talk about very recent rigorous results concerning the Archontis dynamo, in which the magnetic and velocity fields are closely aligned.